Taylor Venema

A Citizen of some other place

txchnologist:

by Michael Keller

This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I’m stepping through the door

And I’m floating in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today

For here am I, sitting in a tin can, far above the world

Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.

-“Space Oddity” by David Bowie

The words to the song Space Oddity have been sweeping across the Internet since May 12. But the voice doesn’t belong to the song’s creator, David Bowie, who originally released it in 1969.

Instead, they were sung by Canadian astronaut and International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield, who recorded it and the accompanying video as part of turning over control of the station on May 12. Hadfield was scheduled to return to Earth on May 13 after an inspiring five-month tour aboard the ISS.

The farewell rendition of Bowie’s long popular song might go down as the most epic and thought-provoking transfers of command in human spaceflight history.

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